The Realist Idealist

I am a Flickr addict. It’s no secret. And I have no shame in proclaiming it.

I’ve been known to spend hours on end, mouth agape, staring at some of the amazing work people around the world are able to capture and share with each other. This is one of my favorite contacts. These individual photos are my “favorites.”

One of the other reasons I’ve always loved Flickr though is not just for my own education and entertainment, but even more so for its ability as a platform to allow for awareness raising, education, and advocacy by any individual or nonprofit.

As if reading my mind, Flickr recently launched a new project to leverage their capacity for good more intentionally, called - not surprisingly - Flickr for Good

A photo can raise awareness of need, of a social issue or cause in ways that words often fall short. It’s such a powerful medium and service and I’m excited to see Flickr (Yahoo) being more overt in helping nonprofits use it.

To start, Flickr has partnered with TechSoup, a nonprofit technology training service, to donate 10,000 Flickr pro accounts to good causes. TechSoup is really the global expert in distributing donated free and low cost software to nonprofits, and so they’ll be distributing the licenses to qualifying orgs.

Great partnership, great idea, great photos!